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Sunday, January 02, 2011

Crazy Quilt Fabric Postcard Tutorial and GIVEAWAY!

Hi all! I had a few people asking me for a tutorial on my Crazy Quilt Christmas cards so I figured before I put away all the fabric and tools I used I should do a tutorial.

First you need to start with a base. I use 6" x 4" piece of Timtex a stiff fabric used for hat brims but you can find it in quilt stores for fabric bowl and purses etc. i used a slightly different product called Stiffy in mine since I could get it in bulk.

Cut a 5 sided shape and put it roughly in the middle. You can use a glue stick to glue this down if you want to. I didn't really find this necessary though.

Pick a scrap of fabric and sew it to one side - sewing through both layers of fabric and the timtex. Press to on side. Some people use a wooden iron or finger press but I prefer to use my small iron on a small board and actually press it. I like the flat seam a lot better to work with.

Keep repeating this process around the 5 sided middle piece. Don't worry about the over-hanging pieces - they don't affect the card at all and I just leave them there.

I've now added fabric pieces to all 5 sides of the shape and pressed them.

Just repeat this process a second time and add another layer of pieces.

Note: If you use larger pieces in the first round you can finish the cards in just one round instead of two; but, I had some tiny scraps that I really wanted to use up on these cards.

Here is the card with the piecing finished. I used larger pieces for the second round. It's just roughly trimmed at the edges at this point. That is fine for this stage.

Now change to a decorative thread or some colour that will look nice with your fabrics and add some decorative stitches along the seam lines. Start with your smallest seams first and work out to your longer seams so that the starts and stops in the small seams will be caught in the longer lines of stitching.

Note: Many of my cards went out without the decorative stitching done since, frankly, I ran out of time. They look really nice without the stitching but beautiful with the stitching.

Here's the back-side of the card so far. you can see the piecing lines and the decorative stitching lines on the back.

Now it's time to take this to your cutting mat and trim it up so that the edges are nice and neat.

To make this into a postcard we need to add a backing fabric and some address lines etc. I bought a postcard stamp on Ebay that I use to stamp my fabric to really speed up this step but you can draw these on yourself. The first year I did these I drew mine on. There are also templates online that you can print out onto fabric using your printer; but, I find this to be the quickest, easiest and most economical way to do this for me.

Now we need to go back to the sewing machine and finish that edge off. You can use a zig-zag stitch or a satin stitch - but my favorite stitch for the edges is this uneven zig-zag. When it is done in white it looks like icicles. You can also bind the edges or use bias tape etc but I love this effect the most.

An extra step that I like to do, when I have time, is to hand sew a metal loop to the back of the card so that people can hang the cards easily. I have several friends who have been saving the cards and hanging them on their trees every year. This is just a little jewelry finding that you can pick up at lots of places and they are inexpensive. you don't need silver or gold - just metal works really well.

Using a gel pen or a zig pen you can now write directly on the fabric.

The postal system is getting very picky about what they are able to process now - I think it's because fabric post cards are getting very popular now and things are falling off them or getting caught in the machines. So now I put stamps on my cards and take them to the teller at the post office for them to hand cancel. Then I put my cards into these self sealing plastic envelops and they go through the mail perfectly like that. The stamp and the marks are still directly on the card, which I think looks really nice, but, the post office is happy and my cards arrive in perfect condition.

Now for the Giveaway! Are you thinking about making some of these cards yourself? Let me give you a hand and send you 10 of the self-sealing plastic envelops, 10 pieces of the Stiffy interfacing, and 10 metal rings to finish off your cards! All that you have to do is
1 Follow me here - the link is on the right hand side under my picture and tell me you did so here in the comments.
2 If you would also like to Like me on Facebook - the link is bottom right - and leave another comment here telling me that you liked me on Facebook that will get you another entry! I'll use a random number generator to get a winner. you can have two chances to win a little fabric post card starter package!

So don't forget Follow me here and comment. Like me on Facebook and comment! If you are already following me you can still enter by leaving a comment here.

Please remember to leave me some way to get in touch with you! If you sign in as anonymous I need an e-mail address please!!!

The GIVEAWAY is now closed ~ congrats to Sunshine our winner!

Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions and I will do my best to answer them!!

Hi Katrina, I picked up your blog from Accuquilt cutters group. I love your Christmas postcards. I have made my own cards for years but have never used the clear plastic envelopes...I would love these. Thanks for a great tut on your cards.Marilyn in San Antonio, TX, USAmailto:gstrain1@satx.rr.com

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